We have recorded more than 106 alleged homicides for 2012 and a little bit more for 2011. Scores of individuals have been arrested and charged for these offences.
Many of them are languishing up at the Fox Hill prison while countless others have been released on bail pending trial.
Thousands of Bahamians have lost their homes due to foreclosures.
Thousands have had their motor vehicles repossessed due to financial reasons which they may have had little or no control over.
Tens of thousands of Bahamians will never have an opportunity to own the smallest piece of real estate, especially here in New Providence.
Tens of thousands more, despite the anticipation of the arrival of ‘heaven on Earth’ after the May 7, 2012 general election, are still unemployed and the national economy is even further south than it would have been before.
Yet, as a matter of national emergency, the gold rush crew is, apparently, hell bent on promulgating the so-called ‘legalization’ of web shops and the possible introduction of a national lottery.
With all of the known fiscal, societal and community-based issues confronting The Bahamas, why has this ‘legalization’ of web shops and a national lottery been hauled to the front burner?
Who and what are propelling this hybrid issue and why the unseemly haste?
Let me be absolutely clear. I have no problem with gaming and it is an individual choice whether or not to participate.
It is not, I submit, a question of morality or even one of simple economics.
The Bahamas Christian Council is dead wrong to be advocating a ‘no’ vote and the shadowy members of the ‘Vote Yes’ campaign and their potential apostate clerical allies are perpetuating a grave disservice on the backs of ordinary but gullible Bahamians by throwing out money; motor vehicles and, allegedly, a home or two, like candy to an already obese and diabetic child.
Who, by the way, is paying the expenses which will be incurred by the Parliamentary Commissioner’s Office for the registration, compiling of voters’ lists and the actual conduct of the proposed January 28 exercise in futility?
What are the projected figures for the same and has the expenditure been authorized by Parliament?
What and where are the proposed regulations to govern the conduct of the business of web shops or a national lottery?
What percentages will be required from the operators and who all will be eligible to apply for a web shop license?
Who or what governmental agency will do due diligence on the background, character and financial acumen of applicants? Will it be a transparent exercise or will it be business as usual?
In law, as even a first year law student should know, a referendum is “The submission of a proposed public measure or actual statute to a public vote” (The American Heritage Dictionary).
Number one: What is the proposed public measure? It cannot be a simplistic (seemingly) question as such does not, in law, constitute a proposed public measure.
The wording of the proposed number one question is flawed and subject to judicial challenge.
In addition, what questions of public policy were tabled in Parliament, debated and passed besides what has been referred to as enabling legislation?
Absolutely nothing! This is a classical case of where the emperor and his bumbling crew are dead naked while parading in Rawson Square!
Secondly, is an actual statute being put to the public for a vote of approval or otherwise?
I submit that there is no statute. Again, I reiterate that I fully support the legalization of web shops (even though they are currently legalized) and the introduction of a national lottery.
The way the government and the shadowy members of the ‘Vote Yes’ campaign are going about the process, however, is wrong in law and contrary to good public policy.
While we have ‘no time to waste’ in getting a solid grip on our rapidly deteriorating national economy, this harebrained rush to ‘legalize’ web shops and establish a national lottery, without the proposed regulations and licensing process being outlined in conjunction with the now fabled ‘two’ questions is illegal and bogus in the extreme.
The opponents of this campaign are barking up the wrong tree and urinating in the breeze, with all due respect.
The FNM is, again, asleep in the back of the bush and snoring like a bunch of drunken sailors while the hapless gold rush crew are sailing the ship known as The Bahamas onto the reefs.
My personal motto is and has always been: Nisi Dominus Frustra (“Unless The Lord helps us, we labor in vain..”)
Some legal eagle, if there are any more in the nation, provided he or she knows his/her constitutional law (like I do) should and must mount an immediate legal challenge to this bogus proposed series of referenda.
This should be the work of the FNM and The Bahamas Christian Council, if they are really serious.
As for me, however, the question is: ‘What are the three and four balls for today and in what houses should I play them (seeing that I don’t buy numbers)?’ To God then, in all things, even numbers, be the glory.
Ortland H. Bodie Jr.
